The Revere Journal recaps a recent meeting between Tom O'Brien, whose HYM wants to turn Suffolk Downs into a mixed-use development and the Revere City Council, which featured much bantering between the current mayor and the guy he replaced, who is now a councilor, as well as some favorable comments about the proposal by another councilor:

"I’ve always said Shirley Avenue is like a volcano about to explode, and this is going to help"' said Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky

Comments

There should be a ten year cooling off period between being Mayor and a City Councillor. The gaul Rizzo has to question what that space could fit after his administration went to the bat for a casino TWICE. Does he honestly want people to believe that he would not have went for a big project if he had won??? Even if some of his points have validity quite frankly there is something odd about his being on the Council so soon after his loss.

Too much of Rizzo's speaking time during City Council meetings is spent either defending his own record or taking potshots at the new Mayor. I'm sure his loss must have hurt, but he shouldn't have run for Council until he was able to move on. The situation as it stands is unfortunate for everyone.

So when Shirley Ave. was primarily a vice strip between the dogtrack and the beach, Cambodian families moved into storefronts that nobody else would and created a thriving Little Phnom Penh district which helped to stabilize the neighborhood and keep eyes on the street.

In the last decade or so, more Latino businesses have kinda filled in around the older Khmer ones. Which has made Shirley a buzzy and very multicultural (and affordable) commercial area.

I guess they've decided it's now time to come in and bulldoze all of that so that the condos and the Panera can now replace it.

And the Cambodian community can go to Lowell, or Mars, or somewhere . .